Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, left, gestures as his wife, Pam, listens during a news conference in the Governors Mansion at the Capitol in Richmond, Va., Saturday, Feb. 2, 2019. Northam is under fire for a racial photo that appeared in his college yearbook. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)

Serious question: Is it ever OK for a white person to wear blackface? To mock, ridicule or dehumanize, the answer is obviously no. But what about as a tribute to someone you genuinely admire, even love?

Anthony Sabatini is under pressure to resign his seat in the Florida Legislature after it was revealed he dressed up for his high school homecoming celebration as his best friend, Brandon Evans, who happens to be African American. “I’m going to be you, you’re going to be me”, said Evans, who painted his face white to represent Sabatini. Ted Danson famously appeared in blackface at a Friar’s Club Roast of then-girlfriend Whoopi Goldberg. Neither of these “costumes” were meant to be malicious.

For the record, I have never worn blackface in public or in private. Frankly, I barely tan. Occasionally my face will turn red, mostly from embarrassment after reading one of my old newspaper columns. I don’t say this to claim moral superiority to any of the politicians or celebrities currently in hot water over blackface photos of them resurfacing after 20 or 30 years, or in the case of actor Liam Neeson, his voluntary confession of racial animus following the rape of a good friend by a black man.

As the whitest of white men, I suffer no psychic wound when some dimwit somewhere corks his or her face for Halloween, the firehouse talent show or fraternity initiation ritual. I am constantly surprised how many people still make this choice. Michael Ertel, until very recently Florida’s secretary of state, dressed in blackface to mock Hurricane Katrina victims. That was in 2005, not 1905. Every year, a sheriff, a sorority brat or a candidate for something lands in the news when a blackface photo shows up on the web, usually posted on their own social media page, as if they were expecting the world to join in their hilarity. What part of 2019 do these people not understand?

But what part of history and context do the cyber-Torquemadas not understand who believe there is no statute of limitations on other people’s blunders? Are Al Jolson and Anthony Sabatini guilty of the same ethical lapse as Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam? Jolson’s “Mammy” act was a theatrical convention employed for more than a century, while Anthony Sabatini was celebrating his friendship with Brandon Evans. Is there no room for shades of grey when discussing blackface, or is everything black and white?

The Democratic governor and attorney general of Virginia are both currently trying to spin their way out of trouble after offensive photos from their past emerged. The governor has denied he appears in a photograph in blackface or a Klansman’s hood, but admitted he had darkened his skin to impersonate Michael Jackson. Attorney General Mark Herring called for Northam to resign, but then days later acknowledged he had also darkened his skin to impersonate rapper Kurtis Blow. Hypocrite? Racist? Rap fan? Or all three? With two prominent Democrats in the soup on race, Republicans raced to the TV cameras and Twitter accounts to point fingers.

“See? It’s not just us!” is the subtext, and not very sub. And they’re right. The fight against racism begins again with every baby that’s born.

Republicans relish the Virginia soap opera because they have been so often cast by Democrats as bigots and even white supremacists. Sean Hannity is forever reminding Fox News viewers that longtime Democratic West Virginia Sen. Robert Bird was a Klansman, true, and that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed “by Republicans,” which is sort of true. The Civil Rights Act cleared the House, 335 to 85, and the Senate by 112 to 24. Both parties had an oar in the water to pass this milestone bill, with Southern Democrat Lyndon Johnson serving as coxswain. Still, it is true Republicans overwhelmingly supported the Civil Rights Act back in ’64.

But what happened after?

Pretty much all the GOP “yeas” were run out of the party. Those that stayed were marginalized. Senators Jacob Javits, Kenneth Keating, Leverett Saltonstall, Karl Mundt, et al. became RINOs or “Rockefeller Republicans,” while the Dixiecrat Democrats such as Jesse Helms and Strom Thurmond became Republicans. In 1964, the Party of Lincoln nominated Barry Goldwater as its standard bearer.

Goldwater was a no vote.

Five former Confederate states flipped to the Republicans for the first time since Reconstruction. The formerly solid Democratic South has been the solid Republican South ever since. There are very few, if any, Nelson Rockefellers or Jacob Javitses in today’s Republican Party. Before Sean Hannity takes too deep a bow for the GOP’s enlightened past, he might want to ask about the present.

Progressive Democrats might want to take a pause before dislocating their shoulders while patting themselves on the back for their enlightenment on race matters. The left has long accommodated and encouraged professional race-baiters, demagogues and blatant anti-Semites in order to win elections. It’s not just the right that sends out dog whistles to the fringes of their base.

How politicians view race and how they vote matters greatly, because they have the power to pass laws that take our property away, take our rights away and put us in prison. This is why it matters if the Confederate stars and bars fly over courthouses, state capitols and police precincts. This is why we care when they appear in blackface. Entertainers and celebrities have their own power, the power to influence, no small thing. Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, Billy Crystal, Robert Downey Jr., Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, George M. Cohan, Eddie Cantor and even Charlie McCarthy (Edgar Bergen’s dummy) appeared on stage or in films or on TV in blackface. But that’s art, right? Who’s to judge? For years, the n-word has been an entertainment career killer, unless you rap, in which case you could win a Grammy. Ultimately, the audience makes that call, just as voters ultimately judge politicians.

At the turn of the 20th century, the great vaudevillian Bert Williams painted his face black — and he was black. Nearly forgotten today, 100 years ago Williams was an entertainment superstar, described by W.C. Fields as “the funniest man I ever saw, and the saddest,” his sadness the result of cruelties imposed on him because of the color of his skin.

This is what makes blackface and anything touching on race so treacherous. One man’s funny is another man’s offensive. One man’s homage is another man’s denigration. One culture’s traditions are another culture’s oppression. To navigate this historic minefield requires context, subtlety, nuance and a desire to be kind, all qualities rarely seen in public life today.

Doug McIntyre is host of "McIntyre in the Morning" on 790 KABC in Los Angeles, heard weekdays from 5-10 a.m. He also hosted "Red Eye Radio" both locally and nationally and has been talking into a microphone for 20 years. He writes a weekly column for the Southern California News Group.